Dan Salmon Approves Of LiveRamp's Buys; Nielsen Gets Granular

LiveRamp’s acquisitions of Arbor and Circulate got the stamp of approval from Dan Salmon, media and internet analyst at BMO Capital Markets. In a previous investor report, Salmon highlighted those two startups for pursuing LiveRamp’s business, so he applauds Acxiom for “keeping the moat robust.” And BMO is significantly changing its Acxiom evaluation, bumping the stock price target from $28 to $32. After meeting with Acxiom management, Salmon says the long-term plan for LiveRamp is to double or even triple the current price for enterprise clients (which currently stands at about $200,000-$250,000 per year for the top 350 clients).

Nielsen’s Evolution

Nielsen is known for providing broad, demographic measures, but a new Publisher Insights ad ratings product gets into the nitty-gritty by measuring both reach and on-target impressions for individual media sellers. Nielsen is also bridging the gap between its Watch (media consumption) and Buy (purchase tracking) businesses by pulling in Nielsen Catalina and Nielsen Buyer Insights data. That move basically let publishers run ROI analysis on media types based on real purchase data. More on the Nielsen blog.

QVC For Millennials

BuzzFeed has increasingly brought its editorial chops to bear in support of ecommerce initiatives. The staff article “28 Products For People Who Miss Southern California” prominently features a product called “Homesick Candles,” which was co-founded by Ben Kaufman, the newly acqui-hired leader of the BuzzFeed Product Lab. And BuzzFeed is using its popular recipe cooking videos to hawk the Fondoodler, a kind of glue gun for melted cheese that, whodathunk, is licensed by BuzzFeed Inc. Fortune’s Erin Griffith has more. Related: A new investment in BuzzFeed gives NBCU broader rights to sell its ad space. More in Adweek.

Family Connection

A merger between French holding company Havas and publisher Vivendi would “make sense," says Havas CEO Yannick Bollore. While no formal talks have taken place, the Bollores own 20% of Vivendi and 60% of Havas, and the two companies already share resources and leadership. Take Dominique Delport, Vivendi’s president of content and a global managing director for Havas. "Big content could bring a lot to advertising and advertising could bring a lot to Vivendi's entertainment world," Bollore said. “It would be a development project rather than a cost saving project.” Analysts are speculating about a possible merger in Q2 of 2017, but Bollore declined to comment on a timetable. More at Reuters.